Friday, August 15, 2014

Elsa Theresa Andersson (April 27, 1897 - January 22, 1922)

Elsa Theresa Andersson, Swedish aviation pioneer, called the chipper Scanian. She was the first Swedish woman to receive a pilot's license.

Andersson was born in St. Peter's Farm in Strövelstorpsvägen near Angelholm , Skane , Sweden, daughter of farmer Edward Andersson and his wife, Alma Svensson.

In her early youth, she became fascinated by flight and studied in the Enoch Thulin flight school at Ljungbyhed . She became the school's 101st student and the last student because the school was closed down in connection with the company's bankruptcy in 1920. On 30 June 1920 she received her pilots license and became the first Swedish woman.

She was not content with this and dreamed of going further and train as a skydiver. The only expert in the area of Sweden, Raoul Thörnblad , refused teach women the art. Andersson then traveled to Berlin in 1921 to go to Otto Heineckes parachute school. The course included two student jump and theoretical training.

Andersson made ​​her first exhibition jump October 2, 1921 outside Kristianstad and her next jump took place a week later outside Helsingborg .

Her third jump occurred before several thousand spectators at Edö outside Askersund January 22, 1922 pilot Albin Lundberg carried her up to about 650 meters, where she jumped. The parachute did not open immediately, because the cord wrapped around her arm. She tried to resolve the critical situation but failed, she struck down in a wooded mountainous area along the road to Edö and died immediately upon impact. On the site traveled Royal Swedish Aero Club is a memorial in 1926.